Uganda's emerging oil and gas industry is under scrutiny over its preparedness to reduce methane emissions as commercial production nears. The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) has identified gaps in Uganda's legal, technical, and institutional readiness to monitor methane emissions. A meeting report from the Ministry of Water and Environment shows that the government is still working to establish data and reporting arrangements for emissions from domestic oil and gas production.
The concerns come as Uganda prepares to begin commercial oil production from the Lake Albert development, involving TotalEnergies' Tilenga project, CNOOC's Kingfisher project, and the Uganda National Oil Company. The government's draft National Action Plan for Short-Lived Climate Pollutants and Methane Emissions Roadmap aims to guide action on methane and other pollutants. However, the Climate Change Department (CCD) acknowledged that the document is still under development and requires further work on data gaps, institutional coordination, financing, and monitoring.
One of the central issues is how Uganda will measure emissions from oil production once operations begin. Assistant Commissioner Muhammad Semambo explained that the country's current Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) includes oil and gas-related mitigation measures but does not establish a production-related greenhouse gas emissions target for the sector. This is because commercial production has not commenced, and the national greenhouse gas inventory does not contain actual activity data for domestic oil and gas production.
Civil society representatives questioned why production-related emissions appeared as zero in the draft roadmap despite emissions estimates and projections in environmental impact assessments for oil and gas developments. The Climate Change Department clarified that the zero figures reflected the absence of actual domestic production activity data in the national inventory. The department emphasized that once production begins, industry operators and responsible institutions will need to collect activity data using agreed parameters and incorporate it into a sectoral inventory.
NRGI's briefing raises concerns about whether Uganda's existing laws provide sufficiently detailed requirements for controlling methane emissions from petroleum operations. The institute notes that restrictions on gas flaring and venting in existing petroleum laws are not backed by detailed methane-specific regulations, measurement standards, and enforcement mechanisms. NRGI also identifies weaknesses in Uganda's emissions accounting, relying largely on Tier 1 default emission factors, which provide general estimates rather than measurements tailored to individual facilities or operations.
The concerns raise questions about how Uganda will establish the scale of methane emissions from its petroleum industry, determine whether operators are complying with applicable requirements, and assess whether mitigation measures are delivering results. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, responsible for about a third of the warming experienced today, with a warming potential 80 times that of carbon dioxide over 20 years. The Climate and Clean Air Coalition estimates that global human-caused methane emissions need to fall by 30 to 60 percent below 2020 levels by 2030.
The October 2 engagement between officials and civil society organizations reviewed the draft roadmap and discussed incorporating methane emissions into national climate planning. Participants raised concerns about the roadmap's planning periods, baseline year, geographical coverage, institutional responsibilities, financing, and monitoring and evaluation. The Climate Change Department agreed to review sections of the document to improve clarity and address these concerns.
Key points
- Uganda's oil and gas industry faces scrutiny over methane emission controls.
- The country's existing laws may not provide detailed requirements for controlling methane emissions.
- Methane emissions need to fall by 30 to 60 percent below 2020 levels by 2030.
